Typically, a baby goes to sleep after drinking a bottle of milk or formula from a nursing bottle. Likewise, a baby will fall completely asleep with a nursing bottle in its mouth while still drinking from the bottle. This results in the milk or other contents from the nursing bottle maintaining contact with the baby's teeth for extended periods of time which results in tooth decay of the baby's teeth.
A number of improvements have been made to the conventional nursing bottle for administering a second liquid which is distinct from the contents of the nursing bottle. However, these improvements have typically been in the area of medicine dispensing in connection with a nursing bottle. In these systems, a conventional baby bottle has a tube or syringe either within the bottle or on the exterior of the bottle. A first solution such as baby formula is placed within the bottle while medicine is placed within the tube. The two solutions are either mixed prior to administering both solutions to the baby or the second solution is manually released into the baby's bottle while the baby is ingesting the first solution. In both systems, the second solution is released manually and prior to the first solution being substantially emptied from the bottle.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,680,441 to Krammer, issued Jun. 8, 1954, discloses a nursing bottle having a separate syringe attached to the nipple of the nursing bottle. The syringe contains a rubber bulb adjacent to the closed end of the bottle which must be manually depressed to empty the contents of the syringe.
More recently, U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,895 to Roskilly, issued Apr. 18, 1989, discloses a nursing bottle having a separate syringe attached to the nipple in a similar manner as the Krammer reference. The plunger of the syringe must be manually depressed to administer the contents of the syringe into the nipple of the nursing bottle.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,122 to Botts, issued Sep. 14, 1993, also discloses a nursing bottle having a manually operated syringe disposed within the nursing bottle. However, as with the prior art, the plunger of the syringe must be manually operated which is inconvenient.
A related type of nursing bottle comprises two separate compartments within the nursing bottle, wherein one compartment is punctured to release the contents into the second compartment. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,786,769 to Greenspan, issued Mar. 26, 1957, discloses a nursing bottle having an inner compartment which is punctured using a threaded shank or screw, which must be manually operated from the exterior of the nursing bottle. However, the Greenspan reference does not rinse the baby's teeth as it is incapable of delivering a first liquid of the nursing bottle and subsequently delivering a second liquid to the baby. Instead, Greenspan discloses the manual mixing of both liquids prior to delivery of the solution to the baby.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,741,383 to Wittwer, issued Jun. 26, 1973, discloses a nursing bottle having an inner compartment which is punctured with a sharp object such as a needle prior to administering the contents of the nursing bottle to the baby.
Another nursing bottle design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,655,279 to Wolf, issued Oct. 13, 1953, wherein a flexible tube having a weighted end is placed within the nursing bottle. The tube has a hollow bore running throughout which allows passage of the contents of the nursing bottle to the nipple. The first end of the tube is attached to the nipple while the second end of the tube is placed near the bottom surface of the nursing bottle. The weighted member enables the tube to bend when the nursing bottle is moved from a vertical to a horizontal orientation. As a result, the second end of the tube remains submerged in the contents of the nursing bottle regardless of the orientation of the bottle thereby eliminating the excessive intake of air. However, this nursing bottle does not provide two separate compartments for independently delivering two separate liquids but instead provides a tube for delivering only one liquid.
Medicine dispensing nursing bottles are known and disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,701 to Roth at al., issued Jul. 9, 1991, which has a medication vile disposed within the bottle. However, this nursing bottle does not allow any liquid to be dispensed from within the bottle itself but only from the medication vile which is completely sealed in relation to the nipple. Therefore, the bottle only houses the vile and is not in open communication with the it.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a nursing bottle capable of delivering a first liquid to a baby, such as baby formula, and then rinsing the first liquid from the baby's mouth by subsequently delivering a second liquid, such as fluoride water, wherein the second liquid is delivered automatically upon the first liquid being substantially dispensed from the bottle.